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Friday, February 5th, 2010
Our contributor to this latest installment of the series Ain’t But a Few of Us — black music writers telling their story — is Twin Cities-based writer Robin James. I first met Robin at an IAJE conference and later worked with her as part of the short-lived Jazz Journalists Association mentoring program for young African-American writers […]
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Thursday, January 14th, 2010
This latest installement in our ongoing series of black music writers telling their story comes from Bill Francis. Brooklyn-based Bill Francis is a music and jazz journalist whose byline has appeared on countless stories and profiles ranging from bebop to hip hop, in the pages of Billboard, Spin, Essence, The Source, among many other publications. […]
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Friday, January 8th, 2010
In her second contribution to The Independent Ear, the uncompromising saxophonist-composer and budding music/socio- cultural commentator Matana Roberts details her personal grounding and addresses the issue of the black audience for jazz, music education, coping with judgmental educators and assorted other related matters on her fertile mind. Matana Roberts Black […]
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Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Fiercely independent aptly describes MATANA ROBERTS One of the more compelling young artists to have arrived on the scene the last few years is saxophonist-composer and AACM member Matana Roberts. She wrote recently to express her appreciation for the Ain’t But a Few of Us Independent Ear series conversations with journalist-author-educator Robin D.G. […]
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Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
RAHSAAN CLARK MORRIS RAHSAAN CLARK MORRIS (center) with Amiri Baraka and William Parker I first encountered Chicago-based writer Rahsaan Clark Morris a few years back when working with the Jazz Journalists Association to establish fellowships to a journalist conference in California in the name of my late […]
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Like most of the participants in our ongoing dialogue with African American music writers, Gregory Thomas, has both feet and hands in several camps. Greg’s byline has been featured in numerous publications, including Salon.com., Guardian Observer (London), American Legacy, Africana.com, BlackAmericaWeb.com, Daily News (NY, NY), TBWT.com, Callaloo and others. He was the founding editor-in-chief of […]
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Robin D.G. Kelley, author of the exhaustively-researched and superb new Thelonious Monk biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original (Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster), contributed the following piece to the recent 75th birthday commemoration for Amiri Baraka. He granted re-print permission to The Independent Ear. Read Robin’s contribution […]
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Monday, November 16th, 2009
New York-based writer Ron Scott, past contributor to our ongoing dialogue with African American music journalists Ain’t But a Few of Us, weighs in here with his take on the recently-released compilation of Amiri Baraka writings. Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music by Amiri Baraka A […]
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Friday, October 30th, 2009
Our ongoing series of conversations with black jazz writers continues with one who doubles as an active musician-bandleader, Greg Tate, leader of the burning, probing, inquisitive, boundary-free ensemble known as Burnt Sugar. Greg has contributed to a variety of publications, becoming most widely-read from his days as a frequent commentator for the Village Voice, where he […]
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Friday, October 30th, 2009
You Don’t Have to be a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind is Blowing! Another Look at the "Jazz is Dead" Controversy; Part One By Ron "Slim" Washington Black Telephone Workers for Justice "Slim" suggests the development of a jazz club circuit to include such venues as […]
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